FACE TO FACE
A press brake bending tool.
Bending and punching
Wilson Tool’ s bending division offers a range of comprehensive press brake tooling. It manufactures American Precision, European Precision, WT-style, American Planed( conventional) and LVD-style tooling to work with all press brakes. It can also create customised special tooling to meet customer requirements.
The company’ s punching division supplies a wide variety of tooling styles including thick turret, fab / thin turret, TRUMPF ®- style, Wiedemann and Salvagnini. In addition to its standard designs, Wilson Tool also addresses challenging fabrication issues through special designs. Its tooling technicians and design engineers will work with customers to design and manufacture punch press tooling to meet demanding application requirements.
ISMR: What are your main highlights and innovations at this year’ s Blechexpo / Schweisstec trade show in Stuttgart?
RP: There are three main highlights for us this year. Firstly, our busbar tooling has been growing at a very rapid rate. This is used to support AI( from servers to power transmissions and data centres etc). This rapid rate of growth has been quite a surprise to us. We make busbar tooling for three major suppliers of those types of machines( Vaski, EHRT and Bochert). We have been able to really consolidate our hold in that market, which we have been in for a long time.
Secondly, we are focusing on our new eClamp; this is the second time that we have displayed the eClamp at Blechexpo in Stuttgart. It is a growing product line for us and a new technology which continues to gain acceptance in the market.
Thirdly, we launched a new tooling line worldwide for Bystronic-style press brakes last year, which we also displayed at FABTECH in Chicago recently. We also introduced various other tools last year( e. g. tools for AMADA machines etc.) which are just hitting their stride. We have some great new tooling products to promote right now.
ISMR: Which areas or regions of growth / opportunity can you highlight for Wilson Tool or for sheet metal manufacturers in general?
RP: North America was a very busy market for us this year, driven by technologies like AI and market sectors such as HVAC, power generation / power distribution etc.
The busbar industry is terrific and won’ t become saturated in the foreseeable future. There is also plenty of room for growth in our stamping side of the business, depending upon the locale. The munitions side of our business also continues to grow.
Punching tools.
The punching side of our business is up big time this year and we were able to gain considerably more market share. The AI market has also blossomed, which has given our punching business quite a boost.
I think there will be some carry-over of this success for us into 2026. We always plan for success, in any scenario. I am optimistic for next year— we have introduced a lot of new tooling products( including our ATC automatic tool changers) into the market and expect a lot from these.
Close-up of the eClamp.
ISMR: What is your vision, as well as your strategic and technical focus for the company? How do you aim to achieve these?
RP: We, like many companies, continue to enhance our technology tools to support our customers globally. Reviewing our ERP, CRM and ecommerce tools are vital to maintaining and improving service for all our customers.
We must keep pace with the needs of our customers: they need information and want to be able to examine and analyse their previous orders etc.
On the tooling side, we are also developing tooling for munitions manufacturing, which is a huge market for us. That side of our business is growing. We introduced automotive stamping tooling this year down in Brazil. Early returns on that are quite positive. We also supply this tooling in the United States via our Impax division. For stamping, tools need to be durable.
ISMR November 2025 | ismr. net | 31